Hugs and Kisses
by mascaret
Summary: Commander Adama comes to realize just how desperately his new President is in need of a personal military advisor.


A/N The shower bit lifted with great affection from the novel _Sagittarius is Bleeding_.

_Hugs and Kisses_

"Billy, set up a meeting with Dr. Cottle. We need to find out how he deals with the vitamin D deficiency in his crew given the lack of sunlight. We're going to need to work out something similar for the rest of the fleet."

"Yes, Madame President."

"What's next?"

"You have -"

Walking and talking at a rapid fire pace through the area outside her office, the President and her chief aide would have walked right by the aide using the phone at Billy's desk to try to locate the President without noticing her had the young lady not called out to them.

"Madame President!"

The aide spoke quickly into the mouthpiece of the phone - "Never mind. She's here." - before dropping her hand to her side with the phone still in it.

"Madame President, there was a problem with the fuel refinery ship this morning. The Commander had to shuttle over there to sort it out. Given the fuel situation rather than take out another shuttle this afternoon, he'd like to move up his meeting with you to this morning."

The President shook her head. "Kelly, tell who ever is on the phone that that won't be possible. My schedule for this morning is already overbooked."

The young woman looked at the phone in her own hand blankly for a second before attempting to explain. "Actually, Madame President -"

The President's other aide interrupted. " - It shouldn't be a problem. I can move some things around to the afternoon and I have the list of concerns you wanted to discuss with the Commander ready."

"No. Absolutely not! I still need to finish going over the last of the concerns submitted by the civilian ships. I may need to add some of those concerns to the list for the Commander. Besides which -"

The President admitted her true objection to moving the meeting time. " - meeting with the Commander this morning would completely defeat the purpose of my lunch meeting with Captain Apollo – which is to go over the list of things that I don't understand on the list for my meeting with the Commander so that I don't have to _once again_ look like a complete idiot in front of the Commander."

Looking incredibly awkward, Kelly again tried to get the President's attention. "Madame President -"

Again interrupting, the President put both her aides on the spot with her next question. "Am I seriously the only one that didn't know that vipers don't have jump capacity? Did you know that?"

"My brother was in the reserves so ..." The blond aide shrugged.

The President turned on her other aide. "Billy? Did you know?"

"I … I ..." Billy's stammering appeared answer enough.

The President sighed. "I'm not meeting with the Commander until after my meeting with Captain Apollo."

"_Madame President, the Commander_ -" The other aide tried yet again.

The President held up a hand to silence her. "Offer to move the meeting to_ Galactica_. See if Captain Apollo would be free to shuttle me over – I can have my meeting with him en route and then meet with the Commander. And see if we can arrange for Dr. Cottle to meet with me today while I'm there.

"Billy, do you have the last of the civilian requests?"

"Yes." Billy juggled a few file before finally producing to the top a rather substantial looking one.

"Madame President -"

Taking the file, the President reached for her glasses, but they weren't in their usual spot. " - I can't read these. Kelly, could you run back to the conference room and get my glasses?"

Shaking her head and admitting defeat, Kelly agreed. "Sure."

"Thank you."

Handing the stack back to Billy, the President moved through the curtain to her own desk. Following right after her, Billy began to read to her.

"A representative from the _Bifrost _has requested that all the alcohol in the fleet be turned over to them. Apparently they need 'copious amounts of alcohol for their religious ceremonies.'"

"Mmm hmm. What's next?"

"The captain of the _Tora Bashiri _is requesting that supplies be apportioned by ship not person."

"_The Tora Bashiri?_ The little transport we toured the other day. The one that had only four people on it and was no bigger than a raptor?"

"That would be the one." Her aide replied.

"The one with the state of the art _dual_ FTL drives?"

"Yes." Billy agreed again.

"When Captain Apollo was giving me the tour of the hangar deck after my goof and explaining the differences between the raptors and vipers I noticed that there were several of both types being deemed unfit for flight. They were being scrapped for parts to fix some of the more salvageable ships."

"Madame President?" Her aide seemed to be questioning where she was going with this.

There was a considerate pause before the President finally replied. "I want a list of all the smaller vessels – purpose, capabilities, current populations. We may need to strip some for FTL drives and other parts and materials."

"What about the people on those ships?"

"Well obviously we'll have to relocate them to other ships."

"Right!" her aide said it quickly as if it was the most obvious thought in the world. A second later, he started in with another thought. "You know, Madame President, the _Tora Bashiri _is a really nice ship. You've been using _Galactica_ shuttles to get back and forth to other ships, but it might show a healthier separation between the military and the civili- "

Her aide didn't get to finish the thought before she cut him off before. "- No. Absolutely not. The last thing we need right now is for it to seem like the government is seizing items for personal use."

"Right." The blush that was no doubt spreading across his face was evident in Keikeya's voice.

"Get the list together for me and I'll talk to Commander Adama to get an idea of what his people are in need of to resupply some of the losses they have been taking."

"Yes, Madame President. I'll add it to the list of topics for your meeting with the Commander."

"Don't actually put it in writing." There was an undeniable sense of urgency in her voice. "Billy, I need you to handle the inventory list personally and discreetly – knowledge of this cannot get out until we are ready to act."

Nothing more was said on that matter, but a nod must have been given because the President's aide moved on to the next issue on his list.

"The captain of the _Gemenon Traveler_ wants to meet with you. He's upset about being asked to ration water again."

"The Commander mentioned to me that the _Galactica's_ water recycling system is for all intents and purposes 100% efficient. We need to fit more of the fleet with systems like that."

"I'll add that to the Commander list too." her aide offered.

"No-" she stopped him. "Put it on the Captain Apollo list. I'll run it by him first. I'm sure there is some obvious reason why it couldn't be done – lack of parts, space, something. No need for me to look like a complete idiot in front of the Commander … again."

"Yes, Madame President."

She was right – on both counts. It was a good idea, but for most of the ships with them it simply wasn't feasible. The purifying equipment simply took up too much space. It was larger than many of the smaller vessels traveling with them.

"We need to come up with more ways to conserve water."

No doubt trying to approach the topic logically, Keikeya asked. "Well what are the biggest uses of water?"

"Apparently ... being Gemenese." the President quipped.

"So religion?" her aide supplied.

"Traditional Gemenese law requires twice daily ritual bathing for a period of no less than ten minutes at a time."

"There are over six hundred people on the _Gemenon Traveler. _That's a lot of water use." her aide commented. "They're just not going to be able to do it.

"That's going to take some convincing. They think it deters the wrath of the gods. Given our current predicament ..." The President let her voice trail off.

"Well is there some way to let them do it, but not use so much water? Like maybe ..." Billy struggled to come up with something. "... maybe they could do it in groups? Shower with a friend?"

"Shower with a friend?" The President snorted. "Why Billy that is a fabulous idea!"

"It's not a very good idea." Billy admitted.

"No! Really! I think it is! I think more research should be done into the idea. Why don't you see if Petty Officer Du-"

"- Forget I mentioned it."

"Oh no! I definitely think that that is an idea worth pursuing!" Chuckling, the President refused to drop it. "Make sure that one gets put on the list. Right at the top!"

"Right away, Madame President. And would that be the Commander Adama list or the Captain Adama one?"

"Mmm …" Her laughter trailed off abruptly. "Perhaps we should table it for now."

"That's a wise idea, Madame President. Actually ... about the Commander ..." her aide started to ask, but trailed off.

"What about the Commander?"

"Well … about him and the Colonel ..."

"Mmm. I've wondered about them myself." The President admitted.

"Do you think that they're …"

"The Colonel certainly gives that impression, doesn't he?" The President responded.

Lowering her voice conspiratorially, she added. "Back on Caprica, when I was going through the Commander's service records I noticed that the Commander has been putting in special requests to have the Colonel be assigned under his command ever since they both rejoined the military."

Her aide lowered his voice to match hers. "I heard that during the initial attacks when they thought that the Commander's son was dead, the Colonel was very … _supportive _of the Commander." Her aide added. "_Right_ in the middle of the CIC."

"You don't say?" The President sounded a bit surprised. "You know, Billy, if they are good for them. Happiness doesn't last. I'm of the opinion if you see a chance for it, grab it while you can."

"So you think they're an item?"

"Who knows? The Commander has a son and they've both been married at one point or another, but since when does that preclude anything? Either way it's none of our business and I don't think the Commander would appreciate us gossiping about his personal life."

"Right." Sounding properly chastised, her aide agreed.

The silence between them lasted only a moment before the President spoke again. "The Commander sent me some reports that he asked the Colonel to prepare for him. I don't think that the Colonel expected them to be shared with anyone other than the Commander. On all of the reports, the line before he signed his name, the Colonel typed in an 'X' and an 'O'."

"_Seriously?_ The Colonel signs his reports with hugs and kisses?"

Sounding more like a gossiping high school girl than the President of what was left of the Twelve Colonies, the President giggled. "Those two are _so_ frakking."

Still sitting in the next room in one of the chairs along the wall with the entrance to Billy's office where the President and Billy had failed to notice him as they breezed by on their way into the room or when the President's other aide had repeatedly tried to draw their attention his way, Bill couldn't believe what he was hearing. If_ ever_ anyone needed a personal military advisor, it was that pair.

Having returned to Billy's work area with the President's glasses in time to hear, the aide in the room with him had sense enough to look embarrassed for the President.

Quietly so the pair behind the curtain wouldn't hear over their giggling, Bill spoke. "It stands for -"

"-Executive Officer." The aide finished it for him.

Bill stood. "I'll await the President in the wardroom on _Galactica_."

Nodding sympathetically, the aide offered. "I'll try to discreetly work 'XO' and 'Executive Officer' into a conversation with the two of them.

_finis_


End file.
